Why your marketing must be consistent and frequent
Recently, a chiropractor friend of mine asked me how real estate agents typically market themselves. I listed various things that you might expect, including print advertising, direct mail, telemarketing (cold calling), and internet marketing strategies….not at all different from the strategies most solopreneurs use.
I also mentioned the challenge real estate agents have distinguishing themselves from every other real estate agent in the market.
Can you relate?
For most in the sales professions — including mortgage brokers, financial planners, car salespersons, real estate agents, etc. — positioning and differentiation are challenges…..and so is patience.
I think one of the biggest issues people in sales have with their marketing is lack of consistency. A case in point is that in the last 6 months, I’ve received maybe 20 different mailings from real estate agents in the form of “personal” letters and postcards.
And that was from 20 different agents! Do you think I remember the name of any of them?
Gary Keller in The Millionaire Real Estate Agent
How do you do this? Well, not by sending a postcard once every 6 months!
A couple of years ago, I sent out three postcards (the same, identical postcard) to a targeted list, spaced out over a period of about 10 weeks. Just 2 days after the third mailing, a woman phoned me excited that she just received my postcard, it was just exactly what she needed, and inquired why hadn’t I sent the postcard sooner.
The truth is that I had sent her the very same postcard twice before — and she probably gave it at least a cursory glance both of those previous times — but it was only the third time that she had actually taken notice and read it carefully.
Whatever lead-generation and marketing strategies real estate agents are using, the key to occupying the first or second spots in the minds of consumers is developing and implementing a solid system or frequent and consistent contact.
People are so bombarded with junk and offers and mailings, it really takes more than what you probably are doing to encourage your ideal clients to remember and think of you when they are ready in the sales cycle to buy. When they’re ready, you want them to buy from you!
On the matter of systematic marketing, Gary Keller introduces “overkill” as the approach real estate agents should take. “Why? Because no matter how much frequent and systematic lead generation is emphasized, most real estate agents still tend to underdo it.”
Does this describe you? If so, it may be a key reason why your marketing — however polished and targeted and magnetic it may be — may not be producing the results you desire.
Any relationship takes time and effort and consistent follow-up. RISMedia posted an article last summer that addresses this, and it concludes with 5 ways to develop a marketing relationship with clients.
(The tips are courtesy of Simon Payne, marketing expert and creator of ReadyToGoNewsletters.com, designed and marketed to/for real estate agents.)
They are:
- Develop a way of communicating regularly with people, using print newsletters, e-mail newsletters, postcards or greetings cards. Write and design communication devices yourself, or choose an off-the-shelf product.
- Make sure to provide valuable, interesting and entertaining information to prove your expertise and to be of genuine service to your clients and prospects. Beware of cookie-cutter newsletters that don’t allow you to customize the content. To build a genuine relationship with your farm you need to provide relevant, personal information to your readers.
- Communicate on a regular basis-at least every month-in order to build and maintain that relationship. People have short memories, so it’s important to have a continual presence in clients’ lives to maintain a strong connection with them.
- Be aware that building relationships with householders in your farm and with clients is a long-term project — keep communicating with them on a regular basis for months and years to get the best results.
- Understand that marketing is an investment, not a cost. If, for example, you close just one transaction per year as a result of your newsletter program you will have paid for it many times over.
